Intelligent export and import of service representations

ABSTRACT

A computational instance may includes a set of computing devices and a configuration management database (CMDB), wherein the CMDB contains a representation of a service deployed on a managed network, wherein the representation of the service includes metadata, service group membership, and an entry point, and wherein the computational instance is configured to: receive an instruction to export the representation of the service to a file; copy, to a metadata object in the file, the metadata; determine a hierarchical subset of the service groups that are related to the service; write, to one or more service group objects in the file, the hierarchical subset of the service groups; determine, from a list of entry points of the managed network, that the entry point is of the service; and write, to an entry point object in the file, the entry point.

BACKGROUND

Enterprises that use a remote network management platform may interactwith two or more computational instances thereof. Each of thesecomputational instances may be dedicated to the enterprise and mayprovide discovery, service mapping, software management, helpdeskfunctions, and workflows (just to name a few capabilities) to theenterprise by way of web-based or other interfaces of the computationalinstances. Each computational instance may thus include one or morecomputing devices operating server functions and one or more databasedevices operating data storage and arrangement functions.

The enterprise may use more than one computational instance in order todevelop and test new features and services before they are formallyrolled out to the enterprise. Thus, the enterprise may use a productioninstance for actual live operations, and a testing instance (or adevelopment instance) for trying out and adjusting the behavior of newfeatures and services. Once the features and services on the testinginstance are considered to be mature and reasonably defect-free, theymay be deployed to the production instance.

But, at least in the case of service mapping, doing so by naivelycopying a service map from the testing instance to the productioninstance is compute-intensive and will often introduce errors. Thus,simple exporting of a service map representation from one instance to afile (or other representation) and then importing this file into anotherinstance is not a viable solution in general.

SUMMARY

Service mapping may involve a computational instance of a remote networkmanagement platform obtaining information related to sets ofinterconnected computing devices and applications operating on a managednetwork (e.g., of an enterprise). These devices and applications may beconfigured to provide a specific service. For instance, a web-basedservice may involve a load balancer directing traffic to various webservers, which in turn obtain data from various databases. While each ofthese devices and applications can be individually discovered, the webservice that they provide in combination may not be apparent byexamining any one thereof.

Thus, service mapping is an automated, semi-automated or manual way ofspecifying the devices and applications that contribute to ahigher-level service. Service mapping builds viewable maps of thesedevices and applications with any dependencies therebetween indicated assuch. Advantageously, service maps can help an enterprise understand theservices impacted, for example, by a failed database or by a serverdevice that is to be taken out of service for an upgrade. Service mapscan also help the enterprise determine the root cause of a problem thatimpacts the performance or availability of a service.

Often, service maps can be automatically discovered, at least in part.Afterward, a user may manually edit the service map so that itaccurately represents the full extent and nuances of the service itrepresents. For example, program logic may be added to the service mapso that the service map accurately reflects certain dependencies. Asnoted above, this discovery and editing may initially take place by wayof a testing instance. When the service map is considered to be properlyconfigured, it is desirable to be able to migrate it to a productioninstance.

But, users who do the development and testing of a service map on thetesting instance may not have the same permissions and authorizations asthe users who deploy the service map to the production instance andthereafter manage it. Thus, the service maps for the same service asrepresented in the testing and production instances map be different. Inorder to accommodate this consideration, a service representation may beexported and imported based on its metadata (e.g., names, definitions,and general information about the represented service), service groups(e.g., a logical collection of related services to which the servicebelongs), and entry point (e.g., a network address at which the servicecan be invoked or discovered). Notably, any extraneous information thatmay be different between the testing and production instances (includingrepresentations of at least some the actual nodes and connectionstherebetween) may be omitted from the file.

In particular, a representation the service, including its metadata,service groups, and entry point, may be saved to a file. This file maybe JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), extensible markup language (XML),or some other structured or unstructured file format. Notably, the “map”itself may be omitted from the file, as it can be recreated by theproduction instance.

Then, the file may be imported into the production instance. Doing somay populate the metadata, service group, and entry point definitionsinto the appropriate database tables and/or files. Also, after the fileis imported, top-down discovery of the service may be initiatedautomatically using the entry point. In this way, a new service map isgenerated that accurately represents the characteristics of the serviceas managed by the production instance.

Advantageously, the process outlined above maintains the integrity ofservices and service maps between testing and production instanceswithout requiring storage of entire service map representations andwithout requiring manual recreation of each aspect of therepresentation.

Accordingly, a first example embodiment may involve receiving, by asource computational instance of a remote network management platform,an instruction to export a representation of a service to a file,wherein the source computational instance includes a first set ofcomputing devices and a source configuration management database (CMDB),wherein the source CMDB contains the representation of the service asdeployed on a managed network, and wherein the representation of theservice includes metadata, service group membership, and an entry point.The first example embodiment may further involve copying, from thesource CMDB and to a metadata object in the file, the metadata. Thefirst example embodiment may further involve determining, from a mappingbetween service groups associated with the managed network, ahierarchical subset of the service groups that are related to theservice. The first example embodiment may further involve writing, toone or more service group objects in the file, the hierarchical subsetof the service groups that are related to the service. The first exampleembodiment may further involve determining, from a list of entry pointsof the managed network, that the entry point is of the service. Thefirst example embodiment may further involve determining, from thesource CMDB, a class of the entry point. The first example embodimentmay further involve writing, to an entry point object in the file, theentry point and the class of the entry point.

A second example embodiment may involve receiving, by a targetcomputational instance of a remote network management platform, anindication to load a file, wherein the file contains a metadata objectspecifying metadata of a service deployed on a managed network, one ormore service group objects specifying a hierarchical subset of servicegroups related to the service, and an entry point object specifying anentry point of the service, wherein the target computational instanceincludes a set of computing devices and a target CMDB, and wherein thefile was exported from a source computational instance of the remotenetwork management platform. The second example embodiment may furtherinvolve copying, to temporary storage in the target CMDB, the metadatafrom the metadata object, the hierarchical subset of the service groupsfrom the one or more service group objects, and the entry point from theentry point object. The second example embodiment may further involvecopying, from the temporary storage to a metadata table in the targetCMDB, a representation of the metadata. The second example embodimentmay further involve copying, from the temporary storage to a servicegroup table in the target CMDB, representations of the service groups.The second example embodiment may further involve copying, from thetemporary storage to an entry point table in the target CMDB, arepresentation of the entry point. The second example embodiment mayfurther involve initiating, by the target computational instance and byway of the entry point, discovery of the service on the managed network.

In a third example embodiment, an article of manufacture may include anon-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon programinstructions that, upon execution by a computing system, cause thecomputing system to perform operations in accordance with the firstand/or second example embodiment.

In a fourth example embodiment, a computing system may include at leastone processor, as well as memory and program instructions. The programinstructions may be stored in the memory, and upon execution by the atleast one processor, cause the computing system to perform operations inaccordance with the first and/or second example embodiment.

In a fifth example embodiment, a system may include various means forcarrying out each of the operations of the first and/or second exampleembodiment.

These, as well as other embodiments, aspects, advantages, andalternatives, will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artby reading the following detailed description, with reference whereappropriate to the accompanying drawings. Further, this summary andother descriptions and figures provided herein are intended toillustrate embodiments by way of example only and, as such, thatnumerous variations are possible. For instance, structural elements andprocess steps can be rearranged, combined, distributed, eliminated, orotherwise changed, while remaining within the scope of the embodimentsas claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic drawing of a computing device, inaccordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic drawing of a server device cluster, inaccordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 3 depicts a remote network management architecture, in accordancewith example embodiments.

FIG. 4 depicts a communication environment involving a remote networkmanagement architecture, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 5A depicts another communication environment involving a remotenetwork management architecture, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 5B is a flow chart, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 6 depicts a service map, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 7 depicts a service mapping group hierarchy, in accordance withexample embodiments.

FIGS. 8A, 8B, 8C, and 8D depict a service export procedure, inaccordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 9 depicts a file, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIGS. 10A, 10B, 10C, and 10D depict a service import procedure, inaccordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart, in accordance with example embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example methods, devices, and systems are described herein. It should beunderstood that the words “example” and “exemplary” are used herein tomean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodimentor feature described herein as being an “example” or “exemplary” is notnecessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over otherembodiments or features unless stated as such. Thus, other embodimentscan be utilized and other changes can be made without departing from thescope of the subject matter presented herein.

Accordingly, the example embodiments described herein are not meant tobe limiting. It will be readily understood that the aspects of thepresent disclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated inthe figures, can be arranged, substituted, combined, separated, anddesigned in a wide variety of different configurations. For example, theseparation of features into “client” and “server” components may occurin a number of ways.

Further, unless context suggests otherwise, the features illustrated ineach of the figures may be used in combination with one another. Thus,the figures should be generally viewed as component aspects of one ormore overall embodiments, with the understanding that not allillustrated features are necessary for each embodiment.

Additionally, any enumeration of elements, blocks, or steps in thisspecification or the claims is for purposes of clarity. Thus, suchenumeration should not be interpreted to require or imply that theseelements, blocks, or steps adhere to a particular arrangement or arecarried out in a particular order.

I. Introduction

A large enterprise is a complex entity with many interrelatedoperations. Some of these are found across the enterprise, such as humanresources (HR), supply chain, information technology (IT), and finance.However, each enterprise also has its own unique operations that provideessential capabilities and/or create competitive advantages.

To support widely-implemented operations, enterprises typically useoff-the-shelf software applications, such as customer relationshipmanagement (CRM) and human capital management (HCM) packages. However,they may also need custom software applications to meet their own uniquerequirements. A large enterprise often has dozens or hundreds of thesecustom software applications. Nonetheless, the advantages provided bythe embodiments herein are not limited to large enterprises and may beapplicable to an enterprise, or any other type of organization, of anysize.

Many such software applications are developed by individual departmentswithin the enterprise. These range from simple spreadsheets tocustom-built software tools and databases. But the proliferation ofsiloed custom software applications has numerous disadvantages. Itnegatively impacts an enterprise's ability to run and grow itsoperations, innovate, and meet regulatory requirements. The enterprisemay find it difficult to integrate, streamline and enhance itsoperations due to lack of a single system that unifies its subsystemsand data.

To efficiently create custom applications, enterprises would benefitfrom a remotely-hosted application platform that eliminates unnecessarydevelopment complexity. The goal of such a platform would be to reducetime-consuming, repetitive application development tasks so thatsoftware engineers and individuals in other roles can focus ondeveloping unique, high-value features.

In order to achieve this goal, the concept of Application Platform as aService (aPaaS) is introduced, to intelligently automate workflowsthroughout the enterprise. An aPaaS system is hosted remotely from theenterprise, but may access data, applications, and services within theenterprise by way of secure connections. Such an aPaaS system may have anumber of advantageous capabilities and characteristics. Theseadvantages and characteristics may be able to improve the enterprise'soperations and workflow for IT, HR, CRM, customer service, applicationdevelopment, and security.

The aPaaS system may support development and execution ofmodel-view-controller (MVC) applications. MVC applications divide theirfunctionality into three interconnected parts (model, view, andcontroller) in order to isolate representations of information from themanner in which the information is presented to the user, therebyallowing for efficient code reuse and parallel development. Theseapplications may be web-based, and offer create, read, update, delete(CRUD) capabilities. This allows new applications to be built on acommon application infrastructure.

The aPaaS system may support standardized application components, suchas a standardized set of widgets for graphical user interface (GUI)development. In this way, applications built using the aPaaS system havea common look and feel. Other software components and modules may bestandardized as well. In some cases, this look and feel can be brandedor skinned with an enterprise's custom logos and/or color schemes.

The aPaaS system may support the ability to configure the behavior ofapplications using metadata. This allows application behaviors to berapidly adapted to meet specific needs. Such an approach reducesdevelopment time and increases flexibility. Further, the aPaaS systemmay support GUI tools that facilitate metadata creation and management,thus reducing errors in the metadata.

The aPaaS system may support clearly-defined interfaces betweenapplications, so that software developers can avoid unwantedinter-application dependencies. Thus, the aPaaS system may implement aservice layer in which persistent state information and other data arestored.

The aPaaS system may support a rich set of integration features so thatthe applications thereon can interact with legacy applications andthird-party applications. For instance, the aPaaS system may support acustom employee-onboarding system that integrates with legacy HR, IT,and accounting systems.

The aPaaS system may support enterprise-grade security. Furthermore,since the aPaaS system may be remotely hosted, it should also utilizesecurity procedures when it interacts with systems in the enterprise orthird-party networks and services hosted outside of the enterprise. Forexample, the aPaaS system may be configured to share data amongst theenterprise and other parties to detect and identify common securitythreats.

Other features, functionality, and advantages of an aPaaS system mayexist. This description is for purpose of example and is not intended tobe limiting.

As an example of the aPaaS development process, a software developer maybe tasked to create a new application using the aPaaS system. First, thedeveloper may define the data model, which specifies the types of datathat the application uses and the relationships therebetween. Then, viaa GUI of the aPaaS system, the developer enters (e.g., uploads) the datamodel. The aPaaS system automatically creates all of the correspondingdatabase tables, fields, and relationships, which can then be accessedvia an object-oriented services layer.

In addition, the aPaaS system can also build a fully-functional MVCapplication with client-side interfaces and server-side CRUD logic. Thisgenerated application may serve as the basis of further development forthe user. Advantageously, the developer does not have to spend a largeamount of time on basic application functionality. Further, since theapplication may be web-based, it can be accessed from anyInternet-enabled client device. Alternatively or additionally, a localcopy of the application may be able to be accessed, for instance, whenInternet service is not available.

The aPaaS system may also support a rich set of pre-definedfunctionality that can be added to applications. These features includesupport for searching, email, templating, workflow design, reporting,analytics, social media, scripting, mobile-friendly output, andcustomized GUIs.

The following embodiments describe architectural and functional aspectsof example aPaaS systems, as well as the features and advantagesthereof.

II. Example Computing Devices and Cloud-Based Computing Environments

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram exemplifying a computing device100, illustrating some of the components that could be included in acomputing device arranged to operate in accordance with the embodimentsherein. Computing device 100 could be a client device (e.g., a deviceactively operated by a user), a server device (e.g., a device thatprovides computational services to client devices), or some other typeof computational platform. Some server devices may operate as clientdevices from time to time in order to perform particular operations, andsome client devices may incorporate server features.

In this example, computing device 100 includes processor 102, memory104, network interface 106, and an input/output unit 108, all of whichmay be coupled by a system bus 110 or a similar mechanism. In someembodiments, computing device 100 may include other components and/orperipheral devices (e.g., detachable storage, printers, and so on).

Processor 102 may be one or more of any type of computer processingelement, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a co-processor (e.g.,a mathematics, graphics, or encryption co-processor), a digital signalprocessor (DSP), a network processor, and/or a form of integratedcircuit or controller that performs processor operations. In some cases,processor 102 may be one or more single-core processors. In other cases,processor 102 may be one or more multi-core processors with multipleindependent processing units. Processor 102 may also include registermemory for temporarily storing instructions being executed and relateddata, as well as cache memory for temporarily storing recently-usedinstructions and data.

Memory 104 may be any form of computer-usable memory, including but notlimited to random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), andnon-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory, hard disk drives, solid statedrives, compact discs (CDs), digital video discs (DVDs), and/or tapestorage). Thus, memory 104 represents both main memory units, as well aslong-term storage. Other types of memory may include biological memory.

Memory 104 may store program instructions and/or data on which programinstructions may operate. By way of example, memory 104 may store theseprogram instructions on a non-transitory, computer-readable medium, suchthat the instructions are executable by processor 102 to carry out anyof the methods, processes, or operations disclosed in this specificationor the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, memory 104 may include firmware 104A, kernel 104B,and/or applications 104C. Firmware 104A may be program code used to bootor otherwise initiate some or all of computing device 100. Kernel 104Bmay be an operating system, including modules for memory management,scheduling and management of processes, input/output, and communication.Kernel 104B may also include device drivers that allow the operatingsystem to communicate with the hardware modules (e.g., memory units,networking interfaces, ports, and busses), of computing device 100.Applications 104C may be one or more user-space software programs, suchas web browsers or email clients, as well as any software libraries usedby these programs. Memory 104 may also store data used by these andother programs and applications.

Network interface 106 may take the form of one or more wirelineinterfaces, such as Ethernet (e.g., Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, andso on). Network interface 106 may also support communication over one ormore non-Ethernet media, such as coaxial cables or power lines, or overwide-area media, such as Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) ordigital subscriber line (DSL) technologies. Network interface 106 mayadditionally take the form of one or more wireless interfaces, such asIEEE 802.11 (Wifi), BLUETOOTH®, global positioning system (GPS), or awide-area wireless interface. However, other forms of physical layerinterfaces and other types of standard or proprietary communicationprotocols may be used over network interface 106. Furthermore, networkinterface 106 may comprise multiple physical interfaces. For instance,some embodiments of computing device 100 may include Ethernet,BLUETOOTH®, and Wifi interfaces.

Input/output unit 108 may facilitate user and peripheral deviceinteraction with computing device 100. Input/output unit 108 may includeone or more types of input devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a touchscreen, and so on. Similarly, input/output unit 108 may include one ormore types of output devices, such as a screen, monitor, printer, and/orone or more light emitting diodes (LEDs). Additionally or alternatively,computing device 100 may communicate with other devices using auniversal serial bus (USB) or high-definition multimedia interface(HDMI) port interface, for example.

In some embodiments, one or more computing devices like computing device100 may be deployed to support an aPaaS architecture. The exact physicallocation, connectivity, and configuration of these computing devices maybe unknown and/or unimportant to client devices. Accordingly, thecomputing devices may be referred to as “cloud-based” devices that maybe housed at various remote data center locations.

FIG. 2 depicts a cloud-based server cluster 200 in accordance withexample embodiments. In FIG. 2, operations of a computing device (e.g.,computing device 100) may be distributed between server devices 202,data storage 204, and routers 206, all of which may be connected bylocal cluster network 208. The number of server devices 202, datastorages 204, and routers 206 in server cluster 200 may depend on thecomputing task(s) and/or applications assigned to server cluster 200.

For example, server devices 202 can be configured to perform variouscomputing tasks of computing device 100. Thus, computing tasks can bedistributed among one or more of server devices 202. To the extent thatthese computing tasks can be performed in parallel, such a distributionof tasks may reduce the total time to complete these tasks and return aresult. For purpose of simplicity, both server cluster 200 andindividual server devices 202 may be referred to as a “server device.”This nomenclature should be understood to imply that one or moredistinct server devices, data storage devices, and cluster routers maybe involved in server device operations.

Data storage 204 may be data storage arrays that include drive arraycontrollers configured to manage read and write access to groups of harddisk drives and/or solid state drives. The drive array controllers,alone or in conjunction with server devices 202, may also be configuredto manage backup or redundant copies of the data stored in data storage204 to protect against drive failures or other types of failures thatprevent one or more of server devices 202 from accessing units of datastorage 204. Other types of memory aside from drives may be used.

Routers 206 may include networking equipment configured to provideinternal and external communications for server cluster 200. Forexample, routers 206 may include one or more packet-switching and/orrouting devices (including switches and/or gateways) configured toprovide (i) network communications between server devices 202 and datastorage 204 via local cluster network 208, and/or (ii) networkcommunications between the server cluster 200 and other devices viacommunication link 210 to network 212.

Additionally, the configuration of routers 206 can be based at least inpart on the data communication requirements of server devices 202 anddata storage 204, the latency and throughput of the local clusternetwork 208, the latency, throughput, and cost of communication link210, and/or other factors that may contribute to the cost, speed,fault-tolerance, resiliency, efficiency and/or other design goals of thesystem architecture.

As a possible example, data storage 204 may include any form ofdatabase, such as a structured query language (SQL) database. Varioustypes of data structures may store the information in such a database,including but not limited to tables, arrays, lists, trees, and tuples.Furthermore, any databases in data storage 204 may be monolithic ordistributed across multiple physical devices.

Server devices 202 may be configured to transmit data to and receivedata from data storage 204. This transmission and retrieval may take theform of SQL queries or other types of database queries, and the outputof such queries, respectively. Additional text, images, video, and/oraudio may be included as well. Furthermore, server devices 202 mayorganize the received data into web page representations. Such arepresentation may take the form of a markup language, such as thehypertext markup language (HTML), the extensible markup language (XML),or some other standardized or proprietary format. Moreover, serverdevices 202 may have the capability of executing various types ofcomputerized scripting languages, such as but not limited to Perl,Python, PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), Active Server Pages (ASP),JAVASCRIPT®, and so on. Computer program code written in these languagesmay facilitate the providing of web pages to client devices, as well asclient device interaction with the web pages.

III. Example Remote Network Management Architecture

FIG. 3 depicts a remote network management architecture, in accordancewith example embodiments. This architecture includes three maincomponents, managed network 300, remote network management platform 320,and third-party networks 340, all connected by way of Internet 350.

Managed network 300 may be, for example, an enterprise network used byan entity for computing and communications tasks, as well as storage ofdata. Thus, managed network 300 may include client devices 302, serverdevices 304, routers 306, virtual machines 308, firewall 310, and/orproxy servers 312. Client devices 302 may be embodied by computingdevice 100, server devices 304 may be embodied by computing device 100or server cluster 200, and routers 306 may be any type of router,switch, or gateway.

Virtual machines 308 may be embodied by one or more of computing device100 or server cluster 200. In general, a virtual machine is an emulationof a computing system, and mimics the functionality (e.g., processor,memory, and communication resources) of a physical computer. Onephysical computing system, such as server cluster 200, may support up tothousands of individual virtual machines. In some embodiments, virtualmachines 308 may be managed by a centralized server device orapplication that facilitates allocation of physical computing resourcesto individual virtual machines, as well as performance and errorreporting. Enterprises often employ virtual machines in order toallocate computing resources in an efficient, as needed fashion.Providers of virtualized computing systems include VMWARE® andMICROSOFT®.

Firewall 310 may be one or more specialized routers or server devicesthat protect managed network 300 from unauthorized attempts to accessthe devices, applications, and services therein, while allowingauthorized communication that is initiated from managed network 300.Firewall 310 may also provide intrusion detection, web filtering, virusscanning, application-layer gateways, and other applications orservices. In some embodiments not shown in FIG. 3, managed network 300may include one or more virtual private network (VPN) gateways withwhich it communicates with remote network management platform 320 (seebelow).

Managed network 300 may also include one or more proxy servers 312. Anembodiment of proxy servers 312 may be a server device that facilitatescommunication and movement of data between managed network 300, remotenetwork management platform 320, and third-party networks 340. Inparticular, proxy servers 312 may be able to establish and maintainsecure communication sessions with one or more computational instancesof remote network management platform 320. By way of such a session,remote network management platform 320 may be able to discover andmanage aspects of the architecture and configuration of managed network300 and its components. Possibly with the assistance of proxy servers312, remote network management platform 320 may also be able to discoverand manage aspects of third-party networks 340 that are used by managednetwork 300.

Firewalls, such as firewall 310, typically deny all communicationsessions that are incoming by way of Internet 350, unless such a sessionwas ultimately initiated from behind the firewall (i.e., from a deviceon managed network 300) or the firewall has been explicitly configuredto support the session. By placing proxy servers 312 behind firewall 310(e.g., within managed network 300 and protected by firewall 310), proxyservers 312 may be able to initiate these communication sessions throughfirewall 310. Thus, firewall 310 might not have to be specificallyconfigured to support incoming sessions from remote network managementplatform 320, thereby avoiding potential security risks to managednetwork 300.

In some cases, managed network 300 may consist of a few devices and asmall number of networks. In other deployments, managed network 300 mayspan multiple physical locations and include hundreds of networks andhundreds of thousands of devices. Thus, the architecture depicted inFIG. 3 is capable of scaling up or down by orders of magnitude.

Furthermore, depending on the size, architecture, and connectivity ofmanaged network 300, a varying number of proxy servers 312 may bedeployed therein. For example, each one of proxy servers 312 may beresponsible for communicating with remote network management platform320 regarding a portion of managed network 300. Alternatively oradditionally, sets of two or more proxy servers may be assigned to sucha portion of managed network 300 for purposes of load balancing,redundancy, and/or high availability.

Remote network management platform 320 is a hosted environment thatprovides aPaaS services to users, particularly to the operators ofmanaged network 300. These services may take the form of web-basedportals, for instance. Thus, a user can securely access remote networkmanagement platform 320 from, for instance, client devices 302, orpotentially from a client device outside of managed network 300. By wayof the web-based portals, users may design, test, and deployapplications, generate reports, view analytics, and perform other tasks.

As shown in FIG. 3, remote network management platform 320 includes fourcomputational instances 322, 324, 326, and 328. Each of these instancesmay represent one or more server devices and/or one or more databasesthat provide a set of web portals, services, and applications (e.g., awholly-functioning aPaaS system) available to a particular customer. Insome cases, a single customer may use multiple computational instances.For example, managed network 300 may be an enterprise customer of remotenetwork management platform 320, and may use computational instances322, 324, and 326. The reason for providing multiple instances to onecustomer is that the customer may wish to independently develop, test,and deploy its applications and services. Thus, computational instance322 may be dedicated to application development related to managednetwork 300, computational instance 324 may be dedicated to testingthese applications, and computational instance 326 may be dedicated tothe live operation of tested applications and services. A computationalinstance may also be referred to as a hosted instance, a remoteinstance, a customer instance, or by some other designation. Anyapplication deployed onto a computational instance may be a scopedapplication, in that its access to databases within the computationalinstance can be restricted to certain elements therein (e.g., one ormore particular database tables or particular rows with one or moredatabase tables).

For purpose of clarity, the disclosure herein refers to the physicalhardware, software, and arrangement thereof as a “computationalinstance.” Note that users may colloquially refer to the graphical userinterfaces provided thereby as “instances.” But unless it is definedotherwise herein, a “computational instance” is a computing systemdisposed within remote network management platform 320.

The multi-instance architecture of remote network management platform320 is in contrast to conventional multi-tenant architectures, overwhich multi-instance architectures exhibit several advantages. Inmulti-tenant architectures, data from different customers (e.g.,enterprises) are commingled in a single database. While these customers'data are separate from one another, the separation is enforced by thesoftware that operates the single database. As a consequence, a securitybreach in this system may impact all customers' data, creatingadditional risk, especially for entities subject to governmental,healthcare, and/or financial regulation. Furthermore, any databaseoperations that impact one customer will likely impact all customerssharing that database. Thus, if there is an outage due to hardware orsoftware errors, this outage affects all such customers. Likewise, ifthe database is to be upgraded to meet the needs of one customer, itwill be unavailable to all customers during the upgrade process. Often,such maintenance windows will be long, due to the size of the shareddatabase.

In contrast, the multi-instance architecture provides each customer withits own database in a dedicated computing instance. This preventscommingling of customer data, and allows each instance to beindependently managed. For example, when one customer's instanceexperiences an outage due to errors or an upgrade, other computationalinstances are not impacted. Maintenance down time is limited because thedatabase only contains one customer's data. Further, the simpler designof the multi-instance architecture allows redundant copies of eachcustomer database and instance to be deployed in a geographicallydiverse fashion. This facilitates high availability, where the liveversion of the customer's instance can be moved when faults are detectedor maintenance is being performed.

In some embodiments, remote network management platform 320 may includeone or more central instances, controlled by the entity that operatesthis platform. Like a computational instance, a central instance mayinclude some number of physical or virtual servers and database devices.Such a central instance may serve as a repository for data that can beshared amongst at least some of the computational instances. Forinstance, definitions of common security threats that could occur on thecomputational instances, software packages that are commonly discoveredon the computational instances, and/or an application store forapplications that can be deployed to the computational instances mayreside in a central instance. Computational instances may communicatewith central instances by way of well-defined interfaces in order toobtain this data.

In order to support multiple computational instances in an efficientfashion, remote network management platform 320 may implement aplurality of these instances on a single hardware platform. For example,when the aPaaS system is implemented on a server cluster such as servercluster 200, it may operate a virtual machine that dedicates varyingamounts of computational, storage, and communication resources toinstances. But full virtualization of server cluster 200 might not benecessary, and other mechanisms may be used to separate instances. Insome examples, each instance may have a dedicated account and one ormore dedicated databases on server cluster 200. Alternatively,computational instance 322 may span multiple physical devices.

In some cases, a single server cluster of remote network managementplatform 320 may support multiple independent enterprises. Furthermore,as described below, remote network management platform 320 may includemultiple server clusters deployed in geographically diverse data centersin order to facilitate load balancing, redundancy, and/or highavailability.

Third-party networks 340 may be remote server devices (e.g., a pluralityof server clusters such as server cluster 200) that can be used foroutsourced computational, data storage, communication, and servicehosting operations. These servers may be virtualized (i.e., the serversmay be virtual machines). Examples of third-party networks 340 mayinclude AMAZON WEB SERVICES® and MICROSOFT® AZURE®. Like remote networkmanagement platform 320, multiple server clusters supporting third-partynetworks 340 may be deployed at geographically diverse locations forpurposes of load balancing, redundancy, and/or high availability.

Managed network 300 may use one or more of third-party networks 340 todeploy applications and services to its clients and customers. Forinstance, if managed network 300 provides online music streamingservices, third-party networks 340 may store the music files and provideweb interface and streaming capabilities. In this way, the enterprise ofmanaged network 300 does not have to build and maintain its own serversfor these operations.

Remote network management platform 320 may include modules thatintegrate with third-party networks 340 to expose virtual machines andmanaged services therein to managed network 300. The modules may allowusers to request virtual resources and provide flexible reporting forthird-party networks 340. In order to establish this functionality, auser from managed network 300 might first establish an account withthird-party networks 340, and request a set of associated resources.Then, the user may enter the account information into the appropriatemodules of remote network management platform 320. These modules maythen automatically discover the manageable resources in the account, andalso provide reports related to usage, performance, and billing.

Internet 350 may represent a portion of the global Internet. However,Internet 350 may alternatively represent a different type of network,such as a private wide-area or local-area packet-switched network.

FIG. 4 further illustrates the communication environment between managednetwork 300 and computational instance 322, and introduces additionalfeatures and alternative embodiments. In FIG. 4, computational instance322 is replicated across data centers 400A and 400B. These data centersmay be geographically distant from one another, perhaps in differentcities or different countries. Each data center includes supportequipment that facilitates communication with managed network 300, aswell as remote users.

In data center 400A, network traffic to and from external devices flowseither through VPN gateway 402A or firewall 404A. VPN gateway 402A maybe peered with VPN gateway 412 of managed network 300 by way of asecurity protocol such as Internet Protocol Security (IPSEC) orTransport Layer Security (TLS). Firewall 404A may be configured to allowaccess from authorized users, such as user 414 and remote user 416, andto deny access to unauthorized users. By way of firewall 404A, theseusers may access computational instance 322, and possibly othercomputational instances. Load balancer 406A may be used to distributetraffic amongst one or more physical or virtual server devices that hostcomputational instance 322. Load balancer 406A may simplify user accessby hiding the internal configuration of data center 400A, (e.g.,computational instance 322) from client devices. For instance, ifcomputational instance 322 includes multiple physical or virtualcomputing devices that share access to multiple databases, load balancer406A may distribute network traffic and processing tasks across thesecomputing devices and databases so that no one computing device ordatabase is significantly busier than the others. In some embodiments,computational instance 322 may include VPN gateway 402A, firewall 404A,and load balancer 406A.

Data center 400B may include its own versions of the components in datacenter 400A. Thus, VPN gateway 402B, firewall 404B, and load balancer406B may perform the same or similar operations as VPN gateway 402A,firewall 404A, and load balancer 406A, respectively. Further, by way ofreal-time or near-real-time database replication and/or otheroperations, computational instance 322 may exist simultaneously in datacenters 400A and 400B.

Data centers 400A and 400B as shown in FIG. 4 may facilitate redundancyand high availability. In the configuration of FIG. 4, data center 400Ais active and data center 400B is passive. Thus, data center 400A isserving all traffic to and from managed network 300, while the versionof computational instance 322 in data center 400B is being updated innear-real-time. Other configurations, such as one in which both datacenters are active, may be supported.

Should data center 400A fail in some fashion or otherwise becomeunavailable to users, data center 400B can take over as the active datacenter. For example, domain name system (DNS) servers that associate adomain name of computational instance 322 with one or more InternetProtocol (IP) addresses of data center 400A may re-associate the domainname with one or more IP addresses of data center 400B. After thisre-association completes (which may take less than one second or severalseconds), users may access computational instance 322 by way of datacenter 400B.

FIG. 4 also illustrates a possible configuration of managed network 300.As noted above, proxy servers 312 and user 414 may access computationalinstance 322 through firewall 310. Proxy servers 312 may also accessconfiguration items 410. In FIG. 4, configuration items 410 may refer toany or all of client devices 302, server devices 304, routers 306, andvirtual machines 308, any applications or services executing thereon, aswell as relationships between devices, applications, and services. Thus,the term “configuration items” may be shorthand for any physical orvirtual device, or any application or service remotely discoverable ormanaged by computational instance 322, or relationships betweendiscovered devices, applications, and services. Configuration items maybe represented in a configuration management database (CMDB) ofcomputational instance 322.

As noted above, VPN gateway 412 may provide a dedicated VPN to VPNgateway 402A. Such a VPN may be helpful when there is a significantamount of traffic between managed network 300 and computational instance322, or security policies otherwise suggest or require use of a VPNbetween these sites. In some embodiments, any device in managed network300 and/or computational instance 322 that directly communicates via theVPN is assigned a public IP address. Other devices in managed network300 and/or computational instance 322 may be assigned private IPaddresses (e.g., IP addresses selected from the 10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255or 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255 ranges, represented in shorthand assubnets 10.0.0.0/8 and 192.168.0.0/16, respectively).

IV. Example Device, Application, and Service Discovery

In order for remote network management platform 320 to administer thedevices, applications, and services of managed network 300, remotenetwork management platform 320 may first determine what devices arepresent in managed network 300, the configurations and operationalstatuses of these devices, and the applications and services provided bythe devices, and well as the relationships between discovered devices,applications, and services. As noted above, each device, application,service, and relationship may be referred to as a configuration item.The process of defining configuration items within managed network 300is referred to as discovery, and may be facilitated at least in part byproxy servers 312.

For purpose of the embodiments herein, an “application” may refer to oneor more processes, threads, programs, client modules, server modules, orany other software that executes on a device or group of devices. A“service” may refer to a high-level capability provided by multipleapplications executing on one or more devices working in conjunctionwith one another. For example, a high-level web service may involvemultiple web application server threads executing on one device andaccessing information from a database application that executes onanother device.

FIG. 5A provides a logical depiction of how configuration items can bediscovered, as well as how information related to discoveredconfiguration items can be stored. For sake of simplicity, remotenetwork management platform 320, third-party networks 340, and Internet350 are not shown.

In FIG. 5A, CMDB 500 and task list 502 are stored within computationalinstance 322. Computational instance 322 may transmit discovery commandsto proxy servers 312. In response, proxy servers 312 may transmit probesto various devices, applications, and services in managed network 300.These devices, applications, and services may transmit responses toproxy servers 312, and proxy servers 312 may then provide informationregarding discovered configuration items to CMDB 500 for storagetherein. Configuration items stored in CMDB 500 represent theenvironment of managed network 300.

Task list 502 represents a list of activities that proxy servers 312 areto perform on behalf of computational instance 322. As discovery takesplace, task list 502 is populated. Proxy servers 312 repeatedly querytask list 502, obtain the next task therein, and perform this task untiltask list 502 is empty or another stopping condition has been reached.

To facilitate discovery, proxy servers 312 may be configured withinformation regarding one or more subnets in managed network 300 thatare reachable by way of proxy servers 312. For instance, proxy servers312 may be given the IP address range 192.168.0/24 as a subnet. Then,computational instance 322 may store this information in CMDB 500 andplace tasks in task list 502 for discovery of devices at each of theseaddresses.

FIG. 5A also depicts devices, applications, and services in managednetwork 300 as configuration items 504, 506, 508, 510, and 512. As notedabove, these configuration items represent a set of physical and/orvirtual devices (e.g., client devices, server devices, routers, orvirtual machines), applications executing thereon (e.g., web servers,email servers, databases, or storage arrays), relationshipstherebetween, as well as services that involve multiple individualconfiguration items.

Placing the tasks in task list 502 may trigger or otherwise cause proxyservers 312 to begin discovery. Alternatively or additionally, discoverymay be manually triggered or automatically triggered based on triggeringevents (e.g., discovery may automatically begin once per day at aparticular time).

In general, discovery may proceed in four logical phases: scanning,classification, identification, and exploration. Each phase of discoveryinvolves various types of probe messages being transmitted by proxyservers 312 to one or more devices in managed network 300. The responsesto these probes may be received and processed by proxy servers 312, andrepresentations thereof may be transmitted to CMDB 500. Thus, each phasecan result in more configuration items being discovered and stored inCMDB 500.

In the scanning phase, proxy servers 312 may probe each IP address inthe specified range of IP addresses for open Transmission ControlProtocol (TCP) and/or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) ports to determinethe general type of device. The presence of such open ports at an IPaddress may indicate that a particular application is operating on thedevice that is assigned the IP address, which in turn may identify theoperating system used by the device. For example, if TCP port 135 isopen, then the device is likely executing a WINDOWS® operating system.Similarly, if TCP port 22 is open, then the device is likely executing aUNIX® operating system, such as LINUX®. If UDP port 161 is open, thenthe device may be able to be further identified through the SimpleNetwork Management Protocol (SNMP). Other possibilities exist. Once thepresence of a device at a particular IP address and its open ports havebeen discovered, these configuration items are saved in CMDB 500.

In the classification phase, proxy servers 312 may further probe eachdiscovered device to determine the version of its operating system. Theprobes used for a particular device are based on information gatheredabout the devices during the scanning phase. For example, if a device isfound with TCP port 22 open, a set of UNIX®-specific probes may be used.Likewise, if a device is found with TCP port 135 open, a set ofWINDOWS®-specific probes may be used. For either case, an appropriateset of tasks may be placed in task list 502 for proxy servers 312 tocarry out. These tasks may result in proxy servers 312 logging on, orotherwise accessing information from the particular device. Forinstance, if TCP port 22 is open, proxy servers 312 may be instructed toinitiate a Secure Shell (SSH) connection to the particular device andobtain information about the operating system thereon from particularlocations in the file system. Based on this information, the operatingsystem may be determined. As an example, a UNIX® device with TCP port 22open may be classified as AIX®, HPUX, LINUX®, MACOS®, or SOLARIS®. Thisclassification information may be stored as one or more configurationitems in CMDB 500.

In the identification phase, proxy servers 312 may determine specificdetails about a classified device. The probes used during this phase maybe based on information gathered about the particular devices during theclassification phase. For example, if a device was classified as LINUX®,a set of LINUX®-specific probes may be used. Likewise, if a device wasclassified as WINDOWS® 2012, as a set of WINDOWS®-2012-specific probesmay be used. As was the case for the classification phase, anappropriate set of tasks may be placed in task list 502 for proxyservers 312 to carry out. These tasks may result in proxy servers 312reading information from the particular device, such as basicinput/output system (BIOS) information, serial numbers, networkinterface information, media access control address(es) assigned tothese network interface(s), IP address(es) used by the particular deviceand so on. This identification information may be stored as one or moreconfiguration items in CMDB 500.

In the exploration phase, proxy servers 312 may determine furtherdetails about the operational state of a classified device. The probesused during this phase may be based on information gathered about theparticular devices during the classification phase and/or theidentification phase. Again, an appropriate set of tasks may be placedin task list 502 for proxy servers 312 to carry out. These tasks mayresult in proxy servers 312 reading additional information from theparticular device, such as processor information, memory information,lists of running processes (applications), and so on. Once more, thediscovered information may be stored as one or more configuration itemsin CMDB 500.

Running discovery on a network device, such as a router, may utilizeSNMP. Instead of or in addition to determining a list of runningprocesses or other application-related information, discovery maydetermine additional subnets known to the router and the operationalstate of the router's network interfaces (e.g., active, inactive, queuelength, number of packets dropped, etc.). The IP addresses of theadditional subnets may be candidates for further discovery procedures.Thus, discovery may progress iteratively or recursively.

Once discovery completes, a snapshot representation of each discovereddevice, application, and service is available in CMDB 500. For example,after discovery, operating system version, hardware configuration andnetwork configuration details for client devices, server devices, androuters in managed network 300, as well as applications executingthereon, may be stored. This collected information may be presented to auser in various ways to allow the user to view the hardware compositionand operational status of devices, as well as the characteristics ofservices that span multiple devices and applications.

Furthermore, CMDB 500 may include entries regarding dependencies andrelationships between configuration items. More specifically, anapplication that is executing on a particular server device, as well asthe services that rely on this application, may be represented as suchin CMDB 500. For instance, suppose that a database application isexecuting on a server device, and that this database application is usedby a new employee onboarding service as well as a payroll service. Thus,if the server device is taken out of operation for maintenance, it isclear that the employee onboarding service and payroll service will beimpacted. Likewise, the dependencies and relationships betweenconfiguration items may be able to represent the services impacted whena particular router fails.

In general, dependencies and relationships between configuration itemsmay be displayed on a web-based interface and represented in ahierarchical fashion. Thus, adding, changing, or removing suchdependencies and relationships may be accomplished by way of thisinterface.

Furthermore, users from managed network 300 may develop workflows thatallow certain coordinated activities to take place across multiplediscovered devices. For instance, an IT workflow might allow the user tochange the common administrator password to all discovered LINUX®devices in a single operation.

In order for discovery to take place in the manner described above,proxy servers 312, CMDB 500, and/or one or more credential stores may beconfigured with credentials for one or more of the devices to bediscovered. Credentials may include any type of information needed inorder to access the devices. These may include userid/password pairs,certificates, and so on. In some embodiments, these credentials may bestored in encrypted fields of CMDB 500. Proxy servers 312 may containthe decryption key for the credentials so that proxy servers 312 can usethese credentials to log on to or otherwise access devices beingdiscovered.

The discovery process is depicted as a flow chart in FIG. 5B. At block520, the task list in the computational instance is populated, forinstance, with a range of IP addresses. At block 522, the scanning phasetakes place. Thus, the proxy servers probe the IP addresses for devicesusing these IP addresses, and attempt to determine the operating systemsthat are executing on these devices. At block 524, the classificationphase takes place. The proxy servers attempt to determine the operatingsystem version of the discovered devices. At block 526, theidentification phase takes place. The proxy servers attempt to determinethe hardware and/or software configuration of the discovered devices. Atblock 528, the exploration phase takes place. The proxy servers attemptto determine the operational state and applications executing on thediscovered devices. At block 530, further editing of the configurationitems representing the discovered devices and applications may takeplace. This editing may be automated and/or manual in nature.

The blocks represented in FIG. 5B are for purpose of example. Discoverymay be a highly configurable procedure that can have more or fewerphases, and the operations of each phase may vary. In some cases, one ormore phases may be customized, or may otherwise deviate from theexemplary descriptions above.

V. CMDB Identification Rules and Reconciliation

A CMDB, such as CMDB 500, provides a repository of configuration items,and when properly provisioned, can take on a key role in higher-layerapplications deployed within or involving a computational instance.These applications may relate to enterprise IT service management,operations management, asset management, configuration management,compliance, and so on.

For example, an IT service management application may use information inthe CMDB to determine applications and services that may be impacted bya component (e.g., a server device) that has malfunctioned, crashed, oris heavily loaded. Likewise, an asset management application may useinformation in the CMDB to determine which hardware and/or softwarecomponents are being used to support particular enterprise applications.As a consequence of the importance of the CMDB, it is desirable for theinformation stored therein to be accurate, consistent, and up to date.

A CMDB may be populated in various ways. As discussed above, a discoveryprocedure may automatically store information related to configurationitems in the CMDB. However, a CMDB can also be populated, as a whole orin part, by manual entry, configuration files, and third-party datasources. Given that multiple data sources may be able to update the CMDBat any time, it is possible that one data source may overwrite entriesof another data source. Also, two data sources may each create slightlydifferent entries for the same configuration item, resulting in a CMDBcontaining duplicate data. When either of these occurrences takes place,they can cause the health and utility of the CMDB to be reduced.

In order to mitigate this situation, these data sources might not writeconfiguration items directly to the CMDB. Instead, they may write to anidentification and reconciliation application programming interface(API). This API may use a set of configurable identification rules thatcan be used to uniquely identify configuration items and determinewhether and how they are written to the CMDB.

In general, an identification rule specifies a set of configuration itemattributes that can be used for this unique identification.Identification rules may also have priorities so that rules with higherpriorities are considered before rules with lower priorities.Additionally, a rule may be independent, in that the rule identifiesconfiguration items independently of other configuration items.Alternatively, the rule may be dependent, in that the rule first uses ametadata rule to identify a dependent configuration item.

Metadata rules describe which other configuration items are containedwithin a particular configuration item, or the host on which aparticular configuration item is deployed. For example, a networkdirectory service configuration item may contain a domain controllerconfiguration item, while a web server application configuration itemmay be hosted on a server device configuration item.

A goal of each identification rule is to use a combination of attributesthat can unambiguously distinguish a configuration item from all otherconfiguration items, and is expected not to change during the lifetimeof the configuration item. Some possible attributes for an exampleserver device may include serial number, location, operating system,operating system version, memory capacity, and so on. If a rulespecifies attributes that do not uniquely identify the configurationitem, then multiple components may be represented as the sameconfiguration item in the CMDB. Also, if a rule specifies attributesthat change for a particular configuration item, duplicate configurationitems may be created.

Thus, when a data source provides information regarding a configurationitem to the identification and reconciliation API, the API may attemptto match the information with one or more rules. If a match is found,the configuration item is written to the CMDB. If a match is not found,the configuration item may be held for further analysis.

Configuration item reconciliation procedures may be used to ensure thatonly authoritative data sources are allowed to overwrite configurationitem data in the CMDB. This reconciliation may also be rules-based. Forinstance, a reconciliation rule may specify that a particular datasource is authoritative for a particular configuration item type and setof attributes. Then, the identification and reconciliation API will onlypermit this authoritative data source to write to the particularconfiguration item, and writes from unauthorized data sources may beprevented. Thus, the authorized data source becomes the single source oftruth regarding the particular configuration item. In some cases, anunauthorized data source may be allowed to write to a configuration itemif it is creating the configuration item or the attributes to which itis writing are empty.

Additionally, multiple data sources may be authoritative for the sameconfiguration item or attributes thereof. To avoid ambiguities, thesedata sources may be assigned precedences that are taken into accountduring the writing of configuration items. For example, a secondaryauthorized data source may be able to write to a configuration item'sattribute until a primary authorized data source writes to thisattribute. Afterward, further writes to the attribute by the secondaryauthorized data source may be prevented.

In some cases, duplicate configuration items may be automaticallydetected by reconciliation procedures or in another fashion. Theseconfiguration items may be flagged for manual de-duplication.

VI. Example Service Mapping

Service mapping may involve a computational instance obtaininginformation related to sets of interconnected computing devices andapplications, operating on a managed network, that are configured toprovide a service. This service may either be provided internally to themanaged network (e.g., an organizational email service) or externally tocustomers of the managed network (e.g., an external web site). Servicemapping builds viewable maps of the configuration items (e.g., thecomputing devices, applications, and any related configurationinformation or profiles) used to provide the service. Dependenciesbetween these configuration items may be based on relationships betweenthe computing devices and applications.

Thus, a service map may be a visual representation on a web-based GUI,for instance, that depicts particular applications operating onparticular computing devices in the managed network as nodes in a graph.The edges of the graph may represent physical and/or logical networkconnectivity between these nodes. This visual representation allowsusers to rapidly determine the impact of a problematic configurationitem on the rest of the service. For instance, rather than viewing, inisolation, the properties of a database application, this applicationcan be represented as having connections to other applications and thecomputing devices that rely upon or support the application. Thus, ifthe database is exhibiting a problem (e.g., running out of storagecapacity), the impacted service(s) can be efficiently determined.

Discovery procedures may be used, at least in part, to determine therelationships between computing devices and applications that defineservices. Alternatively or additionally, services and/or componentsthereof may be manually defined after discovery has at least partiallycompleted. From this information, a service map can be derived.

FIG. 6 provides an example service map including applications andcomputing devices that make up an email service that supports redundancyand high-availability. This service map may be generated for display onthe screen of a computing device. As noted above, the nodes in theservice map represent applications operating on computing devices. Thesenodes may take the form of icons related to the respective functions ofthe applications or computing devices.

The entry point to the email service, as designated by the largedownward-pointing arrow, may be load balancer 600. Load balancer 600 maybe represented with a gear icon, and may operate on a device with hostname maillb.example.com. This host name, as well as other host namesherein, may be a partially-qualified or fully-qualified domain name inaccordance with DNS domain syntax.

Load balancer 600 may distribute incoming requests across mailboxapplications 602, 604, 606, and 608 operating on mail server devicesmsrv1.example.com, msrv2.example.com, msrv3.example.com, andmsrv4.example.com, respectively. These mail server devices may berepresented by globe icons on the service map. Connectivity between loadbalancer 600 and each of mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and 608 isrepresented by respective edges.

Mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and 608 may, for instance, respondto incoming requests for the contents of a user's mail folder, for thecontent of an individual email message, to move an email message fromone folder to another, or to delete an email message. Mailboxapplications 602, 604, 606, and 608 may also receive and processincoming emails for storage by the email service. Other email operationsmay be supported by mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and 608. Forsake of example, it may be assumed that mailbox applications 602, 604,606, and 608 perform essentially identical operations, and any one ofthese applications may be used to respond to any particular request.

The actual contents of users' email accounts, including email messages,folder arrangements, and other settings, may be stored in one or more ofmail database applications 610, 612, and 614. These applications mayoperate on database server devices db0.example.com, db1.example.com, andmdbx.example.com, which are represented by database icons on the networkmap. Connectivity between mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and 608and each of mail database applications 610, 612, and 614 also isrepresented by respective edges.

Mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and 608 may retrieve requested datafrom mail database applications 610, 612, and 614, and may also writedata to mail database applications 610, 612, and 614. The data stored bymail database applications 610, 612, and 614 may be replicated acrossall of the database server devices.

As an example of the operation of the email service depicted by the mapof FIG. 6, an incoming email message may arrive at load balancer 600.This email message may be addressed to an email account (e.g.,user@example.com) supported by the email service. Load balancer 600 mayselect one of mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and 608 to store theemail message. For instance, load balancer 600 may make this selectionbased on a round-robin procedure, the loads (e.g., CPU, memory, and/ornetwork utilization) reported by mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and608, randomly, or some combination thereof.

Assuming that load balancer 600 selects mailbox application 604, loadbalancer 600 then transmits the email message to mailbox application604. Mailbox application 604 may perform any necessary mail serverfunctions to process the email message, such as verifying that theaddressee is supported by the email server, validating the source of theemail message, running the email message through a spam filter, and soon. After these procedures, mailbox application 604 may select one ofmail database applications 610, 612, and 614 for storage of the emailmessage. Similar to load balancer 600, mailbox application 604 may makethis selection based on various criteria, including load on maildatabase applications 610, 612, and 614.

Assuming that mailbox application 604 selects mail database application610, mailbox application 604 then transmits the email message to maildatabase application 610. Mail database application 610 may perform anynecessary mail database functions to process and store the emailmessage. For instance, mail database application 610 may store themessage as a compressed file in a file system, and update one or moredatabase tables to represent characteristics of the email message (e.g.,the sender, the size of the message, its importance, where the file isstored, and so on).

When a mail client application (not shown) requests a copy of the emailmessage, this request may also be received by load balancer 600. Loadbalancer 600 may select one of mailbox applications 602, 604, 606, and608 to retrieve the email message. This selection may be made accordingto various criteria, such as any of those discussed above. Assuming thatload balancer 600 selects mailbox application 608, mailbox application608 then selects one of mail database applications 610, 612, and 614.Assuming that mailbox application 608 selects mail database application612, mailbox application 608 requests the email message from maildatabase application 612.

Since data is replicated across mail database applications 610, 612, and614, mail database application 612 is able to identify and retrieve therequested email message. For instance, mail database application 612 maylook up the email message in a database table, from the table determinewhere the email message is stored in its file system, find the emailmessage in the file system, and provide the email message to mailboxapplication 608. Mailbox application 608 may then transmit the emailmessage to the mail client application.

The arrangement of FIG. 6 may vary. For example, more or fewer loadbalancers, mailbox applications, mail database applications, as well astheir associated devices, may be present. Furthermore, additionaldevices may be included, such as storage devices, routers, switches, andso on. Additionally, while FIG. 6 is focused on an example emailservice, similar service maps may be generated and displayed for othertypes of services, such as web services, remote access services,automatic backup services, content delivery services, and so on.

Nodes representing devices of the same type or operating the sameapplication or type of application may be placed at the same horizontallevel, as in FIG. 6. Nodes representing the entry point of therepresented service may be placed at the top of the map, and thevertical arrangement of nodes may roughly correspond to the order inwhich the nodes become involved in carrying out operations of theservice. Nonetheless, as the number of nodes and connections grows, sucharrangements may vary for purposes of making presentation of the servicemap readable.

In some embodiments, a service map may be defined as a graph by thenodes therein and connections between these nodes. In addition, aservice map definition may include metadata, an entry point, and anindication of service group membership. The metadata may include a name,an owner, a criticality, and/or a discovery type associated with theservice map.

As noted above, the entry point may define a URL or other networkaddress through which the devices and applications that are included inthe service map can be directly or indirectly reached. For example, theentry point may be a URL of the service that end users can enter toaccess the service by way of a protocol such as the hypertext transferprotocol (HTTP) or TCP. In the embodiment of FIG. 6, the domain namemaillb.example.com may be considered the entry point of the representedemail service. Notably, various types of services (e.g., email, web,database, CRM, cloud-based resources, etc.) may define entry points invarious ways.

The service group membership may indicate a logical group to which theservice map belongs. Such a service group may be part of a grouphierarchy that associates services that are related in some fashion(e.g., based on the type of the service, geographic location of theservice, and/or the owner of the service).

FIG. 7 illustrates an example geographic hierarchy of service groups. Itis assumed that an enterprise uses three distinct email services, onefor its employees on the west coast of the U.S. (mail-west.example.com706), one for its employees on the east coast of the U.S.(mail-east.example.com 708), and another for its U.K. employees(mail-uk.example.com 710). For administrative purposes, the enterpriseassigns mail-west.example.com 706 and mail-east.example.com 708 to bemembers of the service group us-mail 702, and also assignsmail-uk.example.com 710 to be a member of the service group europe-mail704. Both the us-mail 702 and europe-mail 704 service groups are members(children) of the service group ALL 700. In this way, the services andtheir associated service maps can be logically organized in any fashionthat is convenient to the enterprise.

VII. Intelligent Export and Import of Service Representations

FIGS. 8A, 8B, 8C, and 8D are flow charts depicting an example serviceexport procedure. This procedure may be performed by a testing instanceof a remote network management platform, for example. Despite thesefigures containing particular steps arranged in a particular order, moreor fewer steps may be performed in a different order without departingfrom the embodiments herein.

At step 800 of FIG. 8A, the service export function is activated. Thismay involve a user selecting references to one or more servicesdisplayed on a GUI of the testing instance. These references may benames or other indicators of the services. Selecting services at step800 may cause the testing instance to identify a number of uniqueidentifiers for services associated with the selected services.

At step, 802, the testing instance determines whether this selectioninvolves no unique identifiers or more than a threshold number of uniqueidentifiers. The threshold number of unique identifiers may beconfigured with default values of 5, 10, or 20 for example.

If no unique identifiers or more than the threshold number of uniqueidentifiers are selected, then at step 804 the testing instance maygenerate an error message and terminate the export process. The user maythen have an opportunity to select a different number of servicereferences in another attempt to export services.

At step 806, the testing instance may query CMDB 500 for moreinformation about each service associated with a selected service. Forexample, the testing instance may query CMDB 500 for metadata regardingthese services. The metadata may include names of the services,identifiers of the services, references to database (e.g., CMDB) tablesrelated to the services, whether the services were discoveredautomatically or manually provisioned, priorities of the services,criticalities of the services, and/or classifications of the services aswell as various other additional information.

Steps 808, 810, and 812 involve exporting the retrieved metadata to afile. At step 808, the testing instance iterates over each selectedservice. At step 810, the testing instance determines whether theservice under consideration was manually provisioned. If this is thecase, the service is skipped and its metadata is not written to thefile. The reason for doing so is that manually-configured services maynot be able to be automatically discovered when imported into theproduction instance due to configuration differences between thesecomputational instances. Also manually-configured services are definedby their configuration items within the service maps, but theseconfiguration items are not exported by design and for reasons ofefficiency. Regardless, at step 812 the metadata for the service underconsideration (which was not manually configured) is written to thefile.

Continuing to FIG. 8B, at step 814 the testing instance queries grouptable 816 for service groups associated with the services. For example,the testing instance may use the unique identifiers of the services tolook up the unique identifiers of associated service groups.

Steps 818, 820, 822, 824, and 826 involve exporting these service groupsto the file. At step 818, the testing instance retrieves definitions ofthe service groups and their parent and ancestor groups from CMDB 500.These definitions may include the service groups' names, uniqueidentifiers, parent groups, and possibly other information as well.

Step 820 indicates that steps 822, 824, and 826 are carried out for eachgroup. Notably, step 822 determines whether the group is associated witha service. If it is not, then the testing instance writes arepresentation of the service group to the file at step 826. If theservice group is associated with a service, then step 824 iteratesthough each service and step 826 writes a representation of the servicegroup and its relationship to the service to the file. This results inthere being one representation of the group in the file if the group isa just a parent to other groups, but there being n representations ofthe group in the file if the group is associated with n services. As aconsequence, a representation of the hierarchy of the service group isadded to the file.

Continuing to FIG. 8C, at step 828, the testing instance may query entrypoint table 830 for each of the services. For example, the testinginstance may use the unique identifiers of the services to look up theunique identifiers of associated entry points.

At step 832, the testing instance may query CMDB 500 to determine theclasses of each entry point. Example entry point classes include HTTP(for services accessible via HTTP), TCP (for services accessible viaTCP), etc.

Step 834 indicates that steps 836, 838, and 840 are carried out for eachentry point. At step 836, the testing instance determines whether theentry point under consideration was manually configured. Thisdetermination may be made, for example, from the entry point's class. Ifthe entry point was manually configured, the testing instance moves onto the next service and does not write a representation of this entrypoint to the file. Otherwise, at step 838, testing instance retrievesspecific configuration data regarding the entry point from CMDB 500.This configuration data may be found in a table in CMDB 500 that isspecific to the entry point's class (e.g., entry points of the HTTP andTCP classes may appear in different tables). At step 840, at least someof this data may be written to a representation of the entry point inthe file.

In steps 812, 826, and 840 of FIGS. 8A, 8B, and 8C, respectively,representations of information related to services are written to afile. For each of these representations (e.g., metadata, service groups,and entry points), additional fields may be written to the file as well.FIG. 8D depicts a flow chart that illustrates how the testing instancemay determine whether to include certain fields in one or more of theserepresentations.

Step 850 indicates that steps 852, 854, 856, and 858 are carried out foreach field of the representation (e.g., metadata, a service group, or anentry point) under consideration. At step 852, the testing instancechecks whether the field is blacklisted. In some embodiments, thetesting instance may be configured with a blacklist of fields that arenot to be written to the file. If the field is in the blacklist, thetesting instance moves on to the next field.

Otherwise, at step 854, the testing instance determines whether thefield is flagged to be skipped based on its content. For example, asystem-level field that specifies a date and time that the metadata,group, or endpoint was created or updated may be skipped because thesevalues would be overwritten by the production instance when the file isimported. Similarly, reference fields that specify other tables and/orfields may be skipped because those tables or fields may or may not bepresent in the production instance. If the field is flagged to beskipped based on its content, the testing instance moves on to the nextfield.

Otherwise, at step 856, the testing instance determines whether thefield is empty and empty fields are configured to be skipped. Doing soreduces the size of the file, thereby conserving memory. If the field isempty and empty fields are configured to be skipped, the testinginstance moves on to the next field. Otherwise, at step 858, the fieldis added to the representation in the file.

Notably, the export procedure is flexible and user-configurable. Thus,any of the services, metadata, service groups, entry points, or fieldsthereof that might otherwise be skipped may be written to the file ifdesired.

As noted above, a file can be formatted in accordance with JSON, XML, orsome other structured or unstructured file format. FIG. 9 depicts anexample JSON file. This file contains four parts: metadata object 900,parent group object 902, service group object 904, and entry pointobject 906. The file represents a single service named “JENKINS” that isa member of the service group “ISRAEL”. This service group, in turn, hasa parent group “ALL”. This file may have been created by way of theembodiments depicted in FIGS. 8A, 8B, 8C, and 8D.

Metadata object 900 specifies the unique identifier (UID) of theservice, the name of the service (“JENKINS”), the service identifier ofthe service (in this case, the same as the unique identifier), theservice name of the service (in this case, the same as the name of theservice), and the name of the CMDB table in which the service isspecified (“CMDB_CI_service_discovered”). Metadata object 900 may alsospecify a “data” object that includes a number of fields. These fieldsmay provide additional information about the metadata, such as itspriority, criticality, and class.

Parent group object 902 specifies the UID of the parent group “ALL” aswell as its name, a service identifier (which is blank because noservice is a direct child of the parent group), and the name of the CMDBtable in which the parent group is specified (“CMDB_CI_service_group”).Parent group object 902 may also specify a “data” object that includes anumber of fields. These fields may provide additional information aboutthe parent group, such as its parent group (which is empty because ithas no further parent group) and well as its criticality.

Group data object 904 specifies the UID of the service group “ISRAEL” aswell as its name, service identifier (which is a reference to the UID ofthe service specified in metadata object 900), service name (also areference to the UID of the service specified in metadata object 900),and the name of the CMDB table in which the service group is specified(“CMDB_CI_service_group”). Group data object 904 may also specify a“data” object that includes a number of fields. These fields may provideadditional information about the service group, such as its operationalstatus, parent group (which is a reference to the UID of parent groupobject 902) its criticality, and its class.

Entry point object 906 specifies the UID of the entry point“https://10.196.39.231:8080”, as well as its name, service identifier(which is a reference to the UID of the service specified in metadataobject 900), service name (also a reference to the UID of the servicespecified in metadata object 900), and the name of the CMDB table inwhich the entry point is specified (“CMDB_CI_endpoint http”). Entrypoint object 904 may also specify a “data” object that includes a numberof fields. These fields may provide additional information about theentry point, such as its operational status, its protocol, its hostaddress, its port number, and so on.

Once a file, such as the one shown in FIG. 9, is created, it can then beimported into a production instance. Doing so effectively transfersdefinitions of the services in the file to a production instance. FIGS.10A, 10B, 10C, and 10D depict such import procedures.

At step 1000, the user selects a file to import into the productioninstance. The file is uploaded to the production instance andtemporarily stored for further processing.

At step 1002, the production instance determines whether the user hasselected preview mode. For example, the production instance may display,by way of a GUI, a selectable option such as a checkbox that controlswhether the preview mode has been selected. The preview mode may allow alimited number of services to be temporarily loaded to CMDB 500 fortesting purposes. Representations of these services may be presented tothe user on a web page, for example, so that the user can confirm thatthe proper file has been imported.

Thus, if preview mode is selected, steps 1004 and 1006 may be performed.At step 1004, the production instance test loads the first 20 (or someother number, e.g., 5, 10, 50) representations of services into CMDB500. Each of these representations may be loaded with a state set to“test” so that it is clear that they are for testing purposes. At step1006, a GUI dialog, pane, or window may be displayed containing a listof these services. From this list the user may be able to determinewhether the uploaded file contains the intended services.

If preview mode is not selected, then at step 1008 the productioninstance loads all services (including metadata, service groups, andentry points) from the file into CMDB 500. At step 1010, the productioninstance performs the transformation flows of FIGS. 10B, 10C, and 10D.As will be discussed below, these flows involve loading definitions ofthe relevant metadata, service groups, and entry points into theappropriate locations of CMDB 500. At step 1012, after these flowscomplete, the production instance redirects the user to an import statuspage that reports on the progress and/or completion of the importprocess.

FIG. 10B depicts an example process for importing the metadata ofservices from the file. Step 1020 indicates that steps 1022, 1024, 1026,1028, 1030, and 1032 are performed for each object in the file.

At step 1022, the production instance determines whether the table nameof the current object is a metadata table. If not, then the object isnot a metadata object, and the next object is considered.

Otherwise, at step 1024, the production instance searches in theidentified metadata table for a record with the same unique identifieras the metadata object under consideration. If such a record is found,it is updated with the information from the metadata object underconsideration. If it is not found, a new record with the uniqueidentifier is created.

Step 1026 indicates that steps 1028 and 1030 are performed for eachfield in the data section of the metadata object. At step 1028, theproduction instance determines whether the field under consideration hasa name of “layer”. If so, the field is skipped. Otherwise, at step 1030,the value of the field is readied to be written to CMDB 500.

Step 1032 involves writing the metadata object and its non-skippedfields to CMDB 500. In some embodiments, various components of themetadata object may be written to various tables in CMDB 500 and/orother databases.

FIG. 10C depicts an example process for importing the service groups ofservices from the file. Step 1040 indicates that steps 1042, 1044, 1046,1048, 1050, 1052, and 1054 are performed for each object in the file.

At step 1042, the production instance determines whether the table nameof the current object is a service group table. If not, then the objectis not a service group object, and the next object is considered.

Otherwise, at step 1044, the production instance determines whether theservice identifier of the service group object under consideration is inthe metadata table. If not, then the service group is not associatedwith any of the services being imported, and the next object isconsidered.

Otherwise, at step 1046, the production instance searches in theidentified service group table for a record with the same uniqueidentifier as the service group object under consideration. If such arecord is found, it is updated with the information from the servicegroup object under consideration. If it is not found, a new record withthe unique identifier is created.

At step 1048, the production instance determines whether the servicegroup under consideration has a name of “ALL”. If so, this grouprepresents the ultimate parent in the hierarchy of service groups, andstep 1054 is performed.

Otherwise, at step 1050, field values are prepared for writing to CMDB500, and at step 1052 the service group is written to CMDB 500. At step1054, the production instance associates the service group to theservice being considered, and writes this association as a mapping togroup table 816. At step 1056, the production instance removes redundantgroup associations from group table 816.

In some embodiments, various components of the service group object maybe written to various tables in CMDB 500, group table 816, and/or otherdatabases.

FIG. 10D depicts an example process for importing the entry points ofservices from the file. Step 1060 indicates that steps 1062, 1064, 1066,and 1068 are performed for each object in the file.

At step 1062, the production instance determines whether the table nameof the current object is an entry point table. If not, then the objectis not an entry point object, and the next object is considered.

Otherwise, at step 1064, the production instance determines whether theservice identifier of the entry point object under consideration is inthe metadata table. If not, then the entry point is not associated withany of the services being imported, and the next object is considered.

Otherwise, at step 1066, either a configuration item for the entry pointis updated (if it already exists) or created (if it does not exist) inCMDB 500. This may involve using CMDB identification and reconciliationprocedures.

At step 1068, the entry point object under consideration is added to theservice and possible removed from any other services. This ensures thatthere is a unique entry point per service.

At step 1070, the production instance may remove any redundantnon-manual entry points from CMDB 500.

At step 1072, the production instance may automatically initiatediscovery on the newly-imported services. For example the productioninstance may perform top-down discovery on the URLs or other networkaddresses associated with each of the entry points.

Notably, by omitting some of the configuration items that appear in theservice map from the stored representation, storage space andcomputational requirements are reduced. The discovery process performedat step 1072 may serve to discover these configuration items andrecreate the service maps.

VIII. Example Operations

FIGS. 11 and 12 are flow charts illustrating example embodiments. Theprocesses illustrated by FIGS. 11 and 12 may be carried out by acomputing device, such as computing device 100, and/or a cluster ofcomputing devices, such as server cluster 200. However, the process canbe carried out by other types of devices or device subsystems. Forexample, the process could be carried out by a portable computer, suchas a laptop or a tablet device.

The embodiments of FIGS. 11 and 12 may be simplified by the removal ofany one or more of the features shown therein. Further, theseembodiments may be combined with features, aspects, and/orimplementations of any of the previous figures or otherwise describedherein.

Block 1100 of FIG. 11 may involve receiving, by a source computationalinstance of a remote network management platform, an instruction toexport a representation of a service to a file, wherein the sourcecomputational instance includes a first set of computing devices and asource CMDB, wherein the source CMDB contains the representation of theservice as deployed on a managed network, and wherein the representationof the service includes metadata, service group membership, and an entrypoint.

Block 1102 may involve copying, from the source CMDB and to a metadataobject in the file, the metadata.

Block 1104 may involve determining, from a mapping between servicegroups associated with the managed network, a hierarchical subset of theservice groups that are related to the service.

Block 1106 may involve writing, to one or more service group objects inthe file, the hierarchical subset of the service groups that are relatedto the service.

Block 1108 may involve determining, from a list of entry points of themanaged network, that the entry point is of the service.

Block 1110 may involve determining, from the source CMDB, a class of theentry point.

Block 1112 may involve writing, to an entry point object in the file,the entry point and the class of the entry point.

In some embodiments, each of the metadata, the hierarchical subset ofthe service groups, and the entry point are associated with data fields,wherein a subset of the data fields are blacklisted, and wherein thesource computational instance is further configured to omit writing, tothe file, the data fields that are blacklisted.

In some embodiments, each of the metadata, the hierarchical subset ofthe service groups, and the entry point are associated with data fields,wherein a subset of the data fields are empty, and wherein the sourcecomputational instance is further configured to omit writing, to thefile, the data fields that are empty.

In some embodiments, the metadata object includes a name of the service,a unique identifier of the service, and a reference to a service tablein the source CMDB in which the metadata is stored.

In some embodiments, the hierarchical subset of the service groupsincludes a first service group, wherein the one or more service groupobjects includes a first service group object associating the servicewith the first service group, and wherein the first service group objectincludes a name of the first service group, the name of the service, aunique identifier of the first service group, the unique identifier ofthe service, and a reference to a group table in the source CMDB inwhich the mapping between service groups is stored.

In some embodiments, the hierarchical subset of the service groups alsoincludes a second service group, wherein the one or more service groupobjects includes a second service group object, wherein the secondservice group object includes a name of the second service group and aunique identifier of the second service group, and the reference to thegroup table in the source CMDB in which the mapping between servicegroups is stored, and wherein the first service group object alsoincludes the unique identifier of the second service group.

In some embodiments, the entry point object includes a name of the entrypoint, a unique identifier of the entry point, a network address of theentry point, the unique identifier of the service, and a reference to anentry point table in the source CMDB in which the list of entry pointsis stored.

In some embodiments, the hierarchical subset of the service groups thatare related to the service includes a first service group of which theservice is a member, and a second service group of which the firstservice group is a member.

In some embodiments, the remote network management platform furthercomprises a target computational instance including a second set ofcomputing devices and a target CMDB. The target computational instancemay be configured to: receive an indication to load the file; copy, totemporary storage in the target CMDB, the metadata from the metadataobject, the hierarchical subset of the service groups from the one ormore service group objects, and the entry point and the class of theentry point from the entry point object; copy, from the temporarystorage to a metadata table in the target CMDB, a representation of themetadata; copy, from the temporary storage to a service group table inthe target CMDB, representations of the service groups; copy, from thetemporary storage to an entry point table in the target CMDB, arepresentation of the entry point and the class of the entry point; andinitiate, by way of the entry point, discovery of the service on themanaged network.

In some embodiments, copying the representation of the metadatacomprises: determining that there is no existing record for the metadatain the target CMDB; and creating a new record for the metadata in thetarget CMDB.

In some embodiments, copying representations of the hierarchical subsetof the service groups comprises: determining that there is no existingrecord in the target CMDB for a particular service group of the servicegroups; and creating a new record for the particular service group inthe target CMDB.

In some embodiments, copying the representation of the entry pointcomprises: determining that there is no existing record in the targetCMDB for the entry point; and creating a new record for the entry pointin the target CMDB.

Block 1200 of FIG. 12 may involve receiving, by a target computationalinstance of a remote network management platform, an indication to loada file, wherein the file contains a metadata object specifying metadataof a service deployed on a managed network, one or more service groupobjects specifying a hierarchical subset of service groups related tothe service, and an entry point object specifying an entry point of theservice, wherein the target computational instance includes a set ofcomputing devices and a target CMDB, and wherein the file was exportedfrom a source computational instance of the remote network managementplatform.

Block 1202 may involve copying, to temporary storage in the target CMDB,the metadata from the metadata object, the hierarchical subset of theservice groups from the one or more service group objects, and the entrypoint from the entry point object.

Block 1204 may involve copying, from the temporary storage to a metadatatable in the target CMDB, a representation of the metadata.

Block 1206 may involve copying, from the temporary storage to a servicegroup table in the target CMDB, representations of the service groups.

Block 1208 may involve copying, from the temporary storage to an entrypoint table in the target CMDB, a representation of the entry point.

Block 1210 may involve initiating, by the target computational instanceand by way of the entry point, discovery of the service on the managednetwork.

The embodiment of FIG. 12 may be combined with any of the featuresdiscussed herein, such as the features discussed in the context of FIG.11. However, the embodiment of FIG. 12 may be employed independently ofany other embodiments or features.

IX. Example Monitor Service Toggle Feature

There may be various ways of displaying service maps by way of a GUI.For example, a service mapping mode may display service maps in theformat depicted in FIG. 6, whereas an event management mode may allowusers to view alerts for services and/or configuration items related toa service map, apply alert action rules, and prioritize alerts forremediation and root cause analysis.

In prior implementations of GUIs on computational instances, users thatopened a service map in service mapping mode had to follow the full pathusing a navigation pane to view the same map in event management mode.This would involve manually entering a long URL or clicking throughseveral web pages on the GUI.

A new feature allows a quick “hop” from a service map in service mappingmode to the service map in event management mode. Thus, users withpermission to both view service maps in event management mode and editmaps in service mapping mode are provided with a button or other GUIelement that allows them to quickly navigate between these modes.

In event management mode, an “Edit Service” button may appear on the GUIthat leads to service mapping mode, and in service mapping mode a“Monitor Service” button may appear on the GUI that leads back to eventmanagement mode. Once such navigation between modes completes, the usermay also activate a “Back” button from either of the GUIs to return tothe previous GUI.

X. Conclusion

The present disclosure is not to be limited in terms of the particularembodiments described in this application, which are intended asillustrations of various aspects. Many modifications and variations canbe made without departing from its scope, as will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art. Functionally equivalent methods and apparatuseswithin the scope of the disclosure, in addition to those describedherein, will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoingdescriptions. Such modifications and variations are intended to fallwithin the scope of the appended claims.

The above detailed description describes various features and operationsof the disclosed systems, devices, and methods with reference to theaccompanying figures. The example embodiments described herein and inthe figures are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments can beutilized, and other changes can be made, without departing from thescope of the subject matter presented herein. It will be readilyunderstood that the aspects of the present disclosure, as generallydescribed herein, and illustrated in the figures, can be arranged,substituted, combined, separated, and designed in a wide variety ofdifferent configurations.

With respect to any or all of the message flow diagrams, scenarios, andflow charts in the figures and as discussed herein, each step, block,and/or communication can represent a processing of information and/or atransmission of information in accordance with example embodiments.Alternative embodiments are included within the scope of these exampleembodiments. In these alternative embodiments, for example, operationsdescribed as steps, blocks, transmissions, communications, requests,responses, and/or messages can be executed out of order from that shownor discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order,depending on the functionality involved. Further, more or fewer blocksand/or operations can be used with any of the message flow diagrams,scenarios, and flow charts discussed herein, and these message flowdiagrams, scenarios, and flow charts can be combined with one another,in part or in whole.

A step or block that represents a processing of information cancorrespond to circuitry that can be configured to perform the specificlogical functions of a herein-described method or technique.Alternatively or additionally, a step or block that represents aprocessing of information can correspond to a module, a segment, or aportion of program code (including related data). The program code caninclude one or more instructions executable by a processor forimplementing specific logical operations or actions in the method ortechnique. The program code and/or related data can be stored on anytype of computer readable medium such as a storage device including RAM,a disk drive, a solid state drive, or another storage medium.

The computer readable medium can also include non-transitory computerreadable media such as computer readable media that store data for shortperiods of time like register memory and processor cache. The computerreadable media can further include non-transitory computer readablemedia that store program code and/or data for longer periods of time.Thus, the computer readable media may include secondary or persistentlong term storage, like ROM, optical or magnetic disks, solid statedrives, compact-disc read only memory (CD-ROM), for example. Thecomputer readable media can also be any other volatile or non-volatilestorage systems. A computer readable medium can be considered a computerreadable storage medium, for example, or a tangible storage device.

Moreover, a step or block that represents one or more informationtransmissions can correspond to information transmissions betweensoftware and/or hardware modules in the same physical device. However,other information transmissions can be between software modules and/orhardware modules in different physical devices.

The particular arrangements shown in the figures should not be viewed aslimiting. It should be understood that other embodiments can includemore or less of each element shown in a given figure. Further, some ofthe illustrated elements can be combined or omitted. Yet further, anexample embodiment can include elements that are not illustrated in thefigures.

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, otheraspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art.The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purpose ofillustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scopebeing indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A remote network management platform comprising:a source computational instance including a first set of computingdevices and a source configuration management database (CMDB), whereinthe source CMDB contains a representation of a service deployed on amanaged network, wherein the representation of the service includesmetadata, service group membership, and an entry point, and wherein thesource computational instance is configured to: receive an instructionto export the representation of the service to a file; copy, from thesource CMDB and to a metadata object in the file, the metadata;determine, from a mapping between service groups associated with themanaged network, a hierarchical subset of the service groups that arerelated to the service; write, to one or more service group objects inthe file, the hierarchical subset of the service groups; determine, froma list of entry points of the managed network, that the entry point isof the service; determine, from the source CMDB, a class of the entrypoint; and write, to an entry point object in the file, the entry pointand the class of the entry point.
 2. The remote network managementplatform of claim 1, wherein each of the metadata, the hierarchicalsubset of the service groups, and the entry point are associated withdata fields, wherein a subset of the data fields are blacklisted, andwherein the source computational instance is further configured to omitwriting, to the file, the data fields that are blacklisted.
 3. Theremote network management platform of claim 1, wherein each of themetadata, the hierarchical subset of the service groups, and the entrypoint are associated with data fields, wherein a subset of the datafields are empty, and wherein the source computational instance isfurther configured to omit writing, to the file, the data fields thatare empty.
 4. The remote network management platform of claim 1, whereinthe metadata object includes a name of the service, a unique identifierof the service, and a reference to a service table in the source CMDB inwhich the metadata is stored.
 5. The remote network management platformof claim 4, wherein the hierarchical subset of the service groupsincludes a first service group, wherein the one or more service groupobjects includes a first service group object associating the servicewith the first service group, and wherein the first service group objectincludes a name of the first service group, the name of the service, aunique identifier of the first service group, the unique identifier ofthe service, and a reference to a group table in the source CMDB inwhich the mapping between service groups is stored.
 6. The remotenetwork management platform of claim 5, wherein the hierarchical subsetof the service groups also includes a second service group, wherein theone or more service group objects includes a second service groupobject, wherein the second service group object includes a name of thesecond service group and a unique identifier of the second servicegroup, and the reference to the group table in the source CMDB in whichthe mapping between service groups is stored, and wherein the firstservice group object also includes the unique identifier of the secondservice group.
 7. The remote network management platform of claim 4,wherein the entry point object includes a name of the entry point, aunique identifier of the entry point, a network address of the entrypoint, the unique identifier of the service, and a reference to an entrypoint table in the source CMDB in which the list of entry points isstored.
 8. The remote network management platform of claim 1, whereinthe hierarchical subset of the service groups that are related to theservice includes a first service group of which the service is a member,and a second service group of which the first service group is a member.9. The remote network management platform of claim 1, furthercomprising: a target computational instance including a second set ofcomputing devices and a target CMDB, wherein the target computationalinstance is configured to: receive an indication to load the file; copy,to temporary storage in the target CMDB, the metadata from the metadataobject, the hierarchical subset of the service groups from the one ormore service group objects, and the entry point and the class of theentry point from the entry point object; copy, from the temporarystorage to a metadata table in the target CMDB, a representation of themetadata; copy, from the temporary storage to a service group table inthe target CMDB, representations of the service groups; copy, from thetemporary storage to an entry point table in the target CMDB, arepresentation of the entry point and the class of the entry point; andinitiate, by way of the entry point, discovery of the service on themanaged network.
 10. The remote network management platform of claim 9,wherein copying the representation of the metadata comprises:determining that there is no existing record for the metadata in thetarget CMDB; and creating a new record for the metadata in the targetCMDB.
 11. The remote network management platform of claim 9, whereincopying representations of the hierarchical subset of the service groupscomprises: determining that there is no existing record in the targetCMDB for a particular service group of the service groups; and creatinga new record for the particular service group in the target CMDB. 12.The remote network management platform of claim 9, wherein copying therepresentation of the entry point comprises: determining that there isno existing record in the target CMDB for the entry point; and creatinga new record for the entry point in the target CMDB.
 13. Acomputer-implemented method comprising: receiving, by a sourcecomputational instance of a remote network management platform, aninstruction to export a representation of a service to a file, whereinthe source computational instance includes a first set of computingdevices and a source configuration management database (CMDB), whereinthe source CMDB contains the representation of the service as deployedon a managed network, and wherein the representation of the serviceincludes metadata, service group membership, and an entry point;copying, from the source CMDB and to a metadata object in the file, themetadata; determining, from a mapping between service groups associatedwith the managed network, a hierarchical subset of the service groupsthat are related to the service; writing, to one or more service groupobjects in the file, the hierarchical subset of the service groups thatare related to the service; determining, from a list of entry points ofthe managed network, that the entry point is of the service;determining, from the source CMDB, a class of the entry point; andwriting, to an entry point object in the file, the entry point and theclass of the entry point.
 14. The computer-implemented method of claim13, wherein the metadata object includes a name of the service, a uniqueidentifier of the service, and a reference to a service table in thesource CMDB in which the metadata is stored.
 15. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the hierarchical subsetof the service groups includes a first service group, wherein the one ormore service group objects includes a first service group objectassociating the service with the first service group, and wherein thefirst service group object includes a name of the first service group,the name of the service, a unique identifier of the first service group,the unique identifier of the service, and a reference to a group tablein the source CMDB in which the mapping between service groups isstored.
 16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein thehierarchical subset of the service groups also includes a second servicegroup, wherein the one or more service group objects includes a secondservice group object, wherein the second service group object includes aname of the second service group and a unique identifier of the secondservice group, and the reference to the group table in the source CMDBin which the mapping between service groups is stored, and wherein thefirst service group object also includes the unique identifier of thesecond service group.
 17. The computer-implemented method of claim 15,wherein the entry point object includes a name of the entry point, aunique identifier of the entry point, a network address of the entrypoint, the unique identifier of the service, and a reference to an entrypoint table in the source CMDB in which the list of entry points isstored.
 18. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein thehierarchical subset of the service groups that are related to theservice includes a first service group of which the service is a member,and a second service group of which the first service group is a member.19. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the remotenetwork management platform also contains a target computationalinstance including a second set of computing devices and a target CMDB,the computer-implemented method further comprising: receiving, by thetarget computational instance, an indication to load the file; copying,to temporary storage in the target CMDB, the metadata from the metadataobject, the hierarchical subset of the service groups from the one ormore service group objects, and the entry point and the class of theentry point from the entry point object; copying, from the temporarystorage to a metadata table in the target CMDB, a representation of themetadata; copying, from the temporary storage to a service group tablein the target CMDB, representations of the service groups; copying, fromthe temporary storage to an entry point table in the target CMDB, arepresentation of the entry point and the class of the entry point; andinitiating, by the target computational instance and by way of the entrypoint, discovery of the service on the managed network.
 20. Acomputer-implemented method comprising: receiving, by a targetcomputational instance of a remote network management platform, anindication to load a file, wherein the file contains a metadata objectspecifying metadata of a service deployed on a managed network, one ormore service group objects specifying a hierarchical subset of servicegroups related to the service, and an entry point object specifying anentry point of the service, wherein the target computational instanceincludes a set of computing devices and a target configurationmanagement database (CMDB), and wherein the file was exported from asource computational instance of the remote network management platform;copying, to temporary storage in the target CMDB, the metadata from themetadata object, the hierarchical subset of the service groups from theone or more service group objects, and the entry point from the entrypoint object; copying, from the temporary storage to a metadata table inthe target CMDB, a representation of the metadata; copying, from thetemporary storage to a service group table in the target CMDB,representations of the service groups; copying, from the temporarystorage to an entry point table in the target CMDB, a representation ofthe entry point; and initiating, by the target computational instanceand by way of the entry point, discovery of the service on the managednetwork.